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A Nashville-based charter school network has agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by parents who objected to a series of mass text messages they received from the charter organization promoting enrollment at its schools.

A Nashville-based charter school network has agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by parents who objected to a series of mass text messages they received from the charter organization promoting enrollment at its schools.

RePublic Schools Nashville announced the settlement agreement in a statement late Friday that made clear they are not accepting fault. The school's insurance policy would cover the full amount as well as RePublic's attorney fees, the school said, and no tax dollars would go toward the settlement.

The settlement — which would deliver financial relief to 5,319 Metro school parents — comes amid an ongoing debate over the district's sharing of student data and contact information with publicly-financed, privately-led charters.

RePublic has agreed to stop sending text messages to Metro school parents without permission.

“We are pleased to announce this settlement and to put this issue behind us," RePublic CEO Jon Rybka said in a statement. "The lawsuit was as a distraction from our mission of providing the best possible education for all of Nashville’s children, no matter their socioeconomic background or ZIP code.

"This settlement allows us to now refocus our resources on what matters most: our schools and our students. RePublic remains dedicated to reimagining public education in the South, and we look forward to another year of transformative results for our students.”

The lawsuit against RePublic, originally filed in January 2016, alleged that RePublic violated the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act by sending messages through a commercial auto-dialing service without the consent of recipients. It claimed parents received the first set of mass text messages on phones on Nov. 16, 2015, and that three additional installments were made through January 2016.

The lawsuit, which referred to the text messages as "spam," took a significant turn in March when U.S. District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw granted class-action status to the plaintiffs.

The law firm representing the parents, Nashville-based Branstetter, Stranch & Jennings, had sought up to $12 million in relief, $500 per text, or $1,500 per person.

"The plaintiffs are very pleased with the settlement, which if approved by the court will result in one of the largest recoveries on a per-class member basis ever in a spam text messaging lawsuit," attorney Gerard Stranch said in an emailed statement. "It is also significant in that RePublic Schools Nashville has agreed to cease sending text messages to MNPS parents and guardians without first obtaining their express consent."

In recent weeks, the school boards of Metro Nashville and Memphis have each been resistant to give up data to the state-run Achievement School District, which operates charter schools in both cities. But Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery issued an opinion this week saying the local school districts must hand over the data to the ASD.

The local boards have argued that federal education records law allows for handing over such records, but doesn't require it.

Metro Nashville Public Schools does not have a policy that limits the sharing of student contact information to charter schools that the local board authorizes.

"The RePublic lawsuit underscores, in real time, the reason why MNPS needs to get a long overdue handle on student and family data security," said school board member Will Pinkston, a charter school critic who has been vocal on the data issue. "As the source of the data, we could have very easily ended up as defendants in this case. I'm glad the plaintiffs chose to focus their litigation on the chief offender, but that doesn't alleviate our obligation to do better in the future."

RePublic was founded in 2011 by Ravi Gupta, who left the charter organization to return to his hometown of New York in 2017.

RePublic operates four schools in Nashville: Nashville Prep, Liberty Collegiate, Nashville Academy of Computer Science and RePublic High School. The charter group also runs two schools in Jackson, Miss.